Outback, A Photicular Book, jumps and educates in this moving series

Sometimes, I make noises when I open the mail. It’s the rare surprise or the latest in a series of books or author, that’s so superior that I just can’t wait to share it with my class, read it myself or have my children discover it. The Photicular Book series from Dan Kainen is one of these. The boys were on the other side of the room when I opened Outback and they dashed over to see what the hubbub was.  

Outback has a spine that’s just under two inches thick. Each page is the book is just under a ¼ inch thick and the book moves. Figuratively, the illustrations in the book move as light dances over each lenticular image. Lenticular images are those cool images that appear to be printed on plastic and have ridges on its surface. As the light is moved over the image the figure makes short, stuttered moves. My earliest memory of this was baseball cards or superhero cups.

Kainen’s Photicular Books are the next-level incarnation of these pictures.  These are high quality books that inspire anyone aged 4 and up due to its interactivity and education.

The text in Outback is appropriate for those in middle school. Granted, those readers younger than middle school may not mind hearing while you’re reading to the, but that’s only because they’re in absolute love with the moving illustrations.

If you’re like you me you’ve never really cared too much about the Frilled Lizard. However, when you see this modern-day lizard scamper across the desert on two legs you’ll wonder what you’re seeing. This is obviously something from Jurassic Park. No, the Frilled Lizard flays its neck and runs on its two back legs when it’s threatened. The result is some bizarre scene that all but has Sigourney Weaver chasing the beast from the Nostromo’s dining room. It’s worth mentioning that this beautiful lizard was on the Australian 2-cent copper coin until 1992, when they did away with coins that were under 5 cents.

Each page is this entertaining. We teach ESL and use Kainen’s book at multiple times a week to show children the moving picture. It’s like witchcraft in a book and there is no better way to get young children interested in animals than to show them one of his books.

Our copy of Outback went missing for a week. While it was certainly plausible that I misplaced, I knew that it was unlikely. This is one of those books that have a reserved place in our library. As I looked around the house for where I might have absent mindedly placed it, I remembered an out of place look that our 7 year-old gave us.

‘I might know where it is’, he said, about an hour after he should have gone to bed. I thought nothing of that, until after having thoroughly cleaned my room and was still unable to locate Outback. I went into his bookshelf and there was Outback, along with Dididodo, an emerging reader chapter book that he likes.

Outback is so good that kids who can’t even read the text will borrow it without their parent’s permission. That is the hallmark of a book that parents need to have and children will want to experience. It will inspire younger readers to read on its level and motivate older readers to learn more about the subject matter.